I continued the winch install on truck #2.
The winch is a 24 volt 17K Sherpa brand "Steed" model. I opted for wire rope to keep the military look as much as possible even though it's not 100% correct.
The ECV-compatible winch plate is Sherpa specific and is from Military Truck Works in Mundelein, IL.
I had previously sandblasted and painted the winch plate with 2 coats of zinc primer and 2 coats of Rapco matte black. The winch plate is pretty solid and is nearly 1/4" thick.
Of course it goes in fits and starts. Got everything together for a dry fit and discovered that Sherpa supplies the winch with ultra high strength Class 12.9 size M10 bolts (10mm). Unfortunately the winch plate is drilled for a 9/16" bolt with a 0.59" hole (that's 14.9mm).
That means the holes for the bolts are about 50% larger than the supplied hardware. The Sherpa winch will not accept larger bolts, not even 7/16".
I thought about the setup - and got very nervous having the approximately 90 pounds of winch, plate and cable possibly bouncing up and down every time the HMMWV hits a bump. Seems like a bad way to have a lot of shear force hitting the bolts in a transverse axis and would cause a failure.
So I've ordered some spacers from a machine shop that are the thickness of the plate and will take up the slack space around the bolt. I have everything loose for now and will do a final assembly when the spacers arrive.
And very frustratingly one of the original nuts that was welded to the back of the frame extension will no longer accept the bolt from the old front bumper. I will run a tap through it and see if it's a thread issue, otherwise I have to figure a solution as those 4 frame extension bolts are the main support strength for the winch plate.
As an aside, my buddy bailed at the last minute to come over to help install which led me to discover that it is pretty easy to have one person install a winch with the aid of Harbor Freight lift and some ratchet straps.
View attachment 903091
View attachment 903092
View attachment 903093
View attachment 903094